Choosehealthcare.fi also providing information in sign language

The key content of the Choosehealthcare.fi online service has been published in sign language at viittomakieli.hoitopaikanvalinta.fi.

The Choosehealthcare.fi website, which serves users of health services and healthcare professionals, contains information about the possibilities and rights of patients to use health services in Finland and abroad. The website also contains information about customer payments, treatment costs and their reimbursements.

Choosehealthcare.fi also helps in issues concerning the use of health services in international situations, for example, if someone suddenly falls ill abroad or travels to another country in order to obtain treatment for their illness.

The choice of languages for the online service is expanding

The entire content of the Choosehealthcare.fi website is available in Finnish, Swedish, English and Northern Sami. The key content of the website has now also been published in Finnish and Finnish-Swedish sign language. Sign language videos, for example, explain how to select a health centre or hospital in Finland, how moving abroad will affect your rights to receive health care, or how you can seek treatment abroad.

“Our aim is to offer information about the freedom of choice of healthcare easily and understandably to all users of health services. We are aiming to expand the language selection on the website, and we also want to provide sign language users with information in their own mother tongue,” says Marika Lahtivirta, head of the Contact Point. “We hope that, as a result of the expanding language selection, as many people as possible will find the website and make use of the information it offers.

The Choosehealthcare.fi online service has been created as a cooperative project between the Contact Point for Cross-Border Healthcare, the National Institute for Health and Welfare, Kela and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.

Further information for the media:
Annamari Qvist, Communications Counsellor at the Contact Point for Cross-Border Healthcare, tel 050 551 8498, firstname.lastname@kela.fi